Where Strategy Meets Soul and Sets It on Fire.

 

Hi, I’m Barbara Monahan, Founder of CUBE Design and Ireland’s first fully certified Level C Brander.

For over 35 years, I’ve worked in design, where for me, art, design, strategy, sustainability, and human behaviour meet. Not as separate disciplines, but as one force shaping how people see, feel, trust, and choose.

I don’t do surface-level. I believe your brand should be built from the truth of the business, the passion that drives it, and the value your ideal customers can actually feel in their world.

In other words, I support the founder’s conviction to meet the customer’s reason to care. I work beneath the surface, closing the gap between what you truly deliver and how the market perceives, understands, values, and believes in you.

Because a brand should not just look good.

It should mean something.

  • To you.
  • To your customers.
  • To the future you are building.

 

When I’m not deep inside a founder’s brand, you’ll usually find me painting, usually in encaustic or oils, watching Dublin play Gaelic football, or in France remembering that stillness is also a strategy.

Oh, and somewhere along the way, I ended up published in Branders Magazine. Still a bit surreal, if I’m honest.

Strategy with soul. Always.

“…Barbara has a strong ability to find what is distinctive and bring it forward in a way that connects. She helped me translate the substance of the work into something people can immediately understand and feel.”

John Douglas, Founder of John Douglas Coaching, now Deru Nation

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Accreditations and Accolades

Certified Brand Architect – The FIRST Certified Brand Architect in the Republic of Ireland, May 2022, awarded by Level C and global leaders of brand design, Marty Neumeier Sabine Friesser and Andy Starr. To achieve this qualification I worked with international teams of designers to create a strategic Super Bowl advert for Barnes & Noble, and rebrand Dr. Oetker’s Frozen Pizza division, directly with the client.
Level 9 (masters) in Design for Sustainability and the Circular Economy – Achieved in 2024, through my professional body the IDI, and Design Skillnets I took this opportunity to study sustainability in design and apply it to my strategic and visual practices. This qualification was issued from the Technical University Shannon, TUS.
Barbara Monahan CUBE Design wins 6 in a row Business All Star from the All Ireland Business Foundation
Fellow of the All Ireland Business Foundation Business All Star for 6 consecutive years, and Fellow of the AIBF. This accreditation assures customers I am a customer centric and trustworthy business. You can listen to my episode of the Business All Stars podcast here where I talk about my business and what brand means to my clients. You can see all of my accolades with the Business All Stars here
Professional Member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI). I have been a member since returning to Ireland from the UK and setting up CUBE Design in 2008. You can read more about the IDI here
Winner of the Prestige Business Awards 2021, 2022 and 2023. Prestige is a UK Based Business Awards Company where you win on merit of submission. – Graphic Designer of the Year 2021, Brand Specialist of the Year 2022, and Digital Design Specialist of the Year 2023
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